Finding Out
by NinjaDevil2000
Summary: Sirius and Remus find out about Harry's ability to speak in Parseltongue. They learn that he's a Parselmouth.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter! I wish I did though. Oh well.

Author's Note: Thanks to all you for reading and reviewing. When you're all done reading, it would be greatly appreciated if you dropped a review. They help spur me on to more writing. So, this story has been in the works for months, but I'm finally just now getting it finished and posted. This can be sort of seen as a prequel to my other story, Recollections, but it isn't necessary. I wouldn't mind you all dropping a review over there though! Alright, hope ya'll enjoy! Love you peeps! - Ninja

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It was Christmas Break. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George were all visiting Grimmauld Place for the holidays and had been there a couple weeks already. They would be staying another week, but then they would leave the Weasleys and the Order again, for Hogwarts.

One morning, when Harry and Ron entered the kitchen for breakfast, everyone was already there and they greeted them. Hermione was reading again, the twins were teasing Pigwidgeon and Hedwig, Tonks was entertaining Ginny with hair tricks, Mrs. Weasley was making breakfast, and Sirius and Remus were comparing detention stories.

As Harry and Ron, who were talking about wizard chess, made to sit down, Hermione let out a small shriek. Everybody stopped talking and looked at her, while Hedwig flew to Harry's shoulder, nibbling his ear.

"Hermione, dear," inquired Mrs. Weasley, "what's wrong?"

"I - I felt something against my foot," Hermione replied, and in accordance with her response, lifted her legs out from under the table and stood up, bending down to look warily under the table. Everybody else, not wanting to be rubbed against by an unknown creature, stood up and did the same. Harry lifted Hedwig off his shoulder, placed her on the table and bent down.

A thin, brown snake was hissing under the table and was slithering upon the cool, wood floor. Harry and Ron looked at each other, remembering at the same time, a predicament they had been in some three years ago. They looked at Hermione, wondering how she could have forgotten something so memorable.

"Herms," Harry began, exchanging glances with Ron, who was trying not to smirk at Hermione, "you do realize I can talk to it, right?" Color flooded back into Hermione's face as she remembered.

She rearranged her features quickly in order to look interested, not frightened, and said, "Yes, right, well, proceed."

Harry and Ron laughed but were cut off by Sirius.

"What do you mean, Harry?" he asked.

Fred answered though, "Yeah, Harry's a parselmouth."

"What?" asked Remus. Harry looked a bit sheepish. He had never much liked the ability, but it did come in handy sometimes.

"Yeah," George began, "he's able to talk to snakes."

"Well, go on Harry, get it out of here!" shouted Ginny, who was standing on her chair, looking nervous. The adults looked as if they wanted to say more, but stayed quiet.

"Do be careful, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, warily.

"It's okay, Mum," said George.

"Yeah," added Fred, "Harry could kiss the snake if he wanted." All the kids laughed, but the adults looked concerned.

Harry bent down, faced the snake, and let out a hissing sound. _"Follow me and I will take you somewhere safe,"_ Harry hissed to the snake. The snake turned to him and slithered along the floor, towards him. Harry led it out onto the front porch step and the snake slithered outside, hissing its thanks to Harry as it passed. Harry watched it disappear, then walked back inside, for it was extremely cold. When he returned to the kitchen, he found Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George all eating their breakfast. Harry took his place next to Ron and helped himself to the plate of eggs and toast that Mrs. Weasley had made for him. Only when Ron nudged him with his elbow, did he realize that Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Mrs. Weasley were all staring at him.

"What?" Harry asked, swallowing his bite of toast.

"Harry," began Sirius, "when did you find out you were a parselmouth?"

"Well," Harry said, thinking back, "I had talked to snakes before, but I didn't realize what it meant until second year."

"Yeah," Ron jumped in. "It was when we were at that Dueling Club, the one that git Lockhart set up."

"He wasn't a git, Ron!" interrupted Hermione indignantly.

"He tried to erase mine and Harry's memories!" Ron shouted back at her. "Anyways, Malfoy conjured a snake," continued Ron, ignoring Hermione's look, "and it was going to attack another student but then Harry spoke to it and made it stop."

"Yeah," began George, "and everybody thought that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin for a while." The six children laughed, but Ginny's came out a bit forced.

"Sorry, Gin," Harry said in an undertone, noticing this.

"It's okay, Harry," replied Ginny, smiling slightly. "Don't worry about it."

"Why did they think you were Slytherin's heir?" asked Remus, looking curious.

"I told you, Remus," began Tonks, "that was when the Chamber of Secrets was opened and people were getting petrified."

"What?" Sirius gasped. "The Chamber of Secrets was opened again?"

"Yeah, it was. We closed it though, didn't we?" Ron said, smiling at Harry.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a monster or something in there?" Sirius said, curiously. "Wasn't that what the legend said?"

"Now, that's enough." Mrs. Weasley was looking disgruntled and disapproving. "I'm sure the children don't want to talk about it anymore, do they? Why don't you go upstairs and clean out a closet, okay?" The children stood up, handed their breakfast plates to Mrs. Weasley and trouped out.

"Be careful of rats and doxies!" Mrs. Weasley called after them. She, of course knew about the Chamber, the Basilisk, and the diary, due to Ron's, Ginny's, and Harry's involvement.

"Well, at least I don't have to tell the story again," Ginny sighed, as they all walked out.

"I'm sorry about that, Ginny. I know that year was hard for you," Hermione said, consolingly.

"Don't worry about it, guys," replied Ginny, smiling at her friends and brothers, as they reached the closet they were supposed to be cleaning.

"I have a feeling you'll have to tell Sirius though, Harry," said Hermione. "He seems to be the kind of person who wants to know what's going on."

"Yeah, I think so. I get the feeling that Professor Lupin is like that too."

"Yeah, but he wasn't in Azkaban, was he?" said Hermione. "He would have known about all that stuff that had happened."

"You think so?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Hermione said. "I mean, it wouldn't have been in the Prophet or anything, but I'm sure Dumbledore probably told him and a few others. Probably wanted them to be on the lookout for anything else like that or any other cursed artifacts."

"I suppose," Harry said, as they continued climbing the stairs.

"Well, just another thing they know about us now, huh?" Ron said.

Harry smiled. "Guess so."


End file.
